All language subtitles for PBS.Ancient.Invisible.Cities.Series.1.2of3.Cairo.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

♪♪

-I'm Darius Arya,
and I'm an archaeologist

going in search
of the ancient world

in three of the most exciting
cities on Earth --

Athens, the birthplace
of democracy;

Istanbul, the crossroads
between Europe and Asia;

and in this program,
the gateway to Ancient Egypt,

Cairo.

♪♪

The skyline of Cairo

is full of extraordinary
historic buildings.

But so much of Cairo's past
remains invisible.

I'm going to be exploring
its hidden spaces

buried deep beneath
ancient monuments

and underneath
the modern streets.

It's not easy getting down here.

I'll be working
with a 3-D scanning team

who are using laser technology

to reveal the secrets
of Cairo's fascinating past.

♪♪

But the history of Cairo is
not all about Ancient Egyptians.

I specialize in Roman history,

so I'm thrilled to discover
a Roman fortress.

Really impressive.

I explore the magnificent
Arabic Citadel.

Wow.
Oh, man!

Okay, that's a drop.

That's a drop.
-It is.

-And I'll be using
virtual reality

to investigate the ancient world
in a whole-new way.

♪♪

Welcome to "Invisible Cairo."

♪♪

♪♪

-The River Nile --

The life force that flows

right through
the center of Cairo.

The world's longest river,

it springs up
in the African Great Lakes

over 4,000 miles to the south.

It truly is a natural wonder.

♪♪

For millennia,
the Nile flooded every year

and transformed arid desert
into fertile fields.

Cairo is at the point
where the river splits up

into the Nile Delta

to make full use
of the river's bounty,

and that's why the same location
was so sacred and important

to the people of Ancient Egypt.

♪♪

[ Horns honking ]

♪♪

The region that's now Cairo
has been ruled by many empires,

but one iconic shape, built
by the very first civilization,

defines the city's skyline.

The Great Pyramid

is the last remaining wonder
of the ancient world.

♪♪

It is so fantastic to be
in front of the Great Pyramid.

I mean, it's an image that
you know, it's so famous,

but to be here in front of it,

to look at that structure,
its mass,

it is awe-inspiring.

But all of this is not a city.

It's a cemetery of the kings
and queens of Ancient Egypt --

the grandest cemetery
of the whole world.

♪♪

The Great Pyramid of Giza
was built over 4,500 years ago,

around 2560 B.C.

20,000 workers built it,

but it was
the last resting place

for just one man,
a pharaoh called Khufu.

Our scanning project,

one of the most detailed
ever carried out in Cairo,

begins here,

and the team is led
by Will Trossell.

They're going to create a 3-D
computer model of the pyramid

to help reveal the secrets
of its design --

new research to add
to existing knowledge.

You guys have done
a lot of projects,

but here we are, looking at one
of the wonders of the world.

I mean, it's massive.

What are the challenges
in this project?

-Well, the major one
is the temperature.

We've got scale,
and we've got accuracy, as well.

There's three big things there.

-I'm with you about the heat.
I mean, it's just --

It's beautiful
to be here in the sun,

but what kind of effect is it
having on the measurements?

-Just the heat from the sun

creates a lot of noise
in our data,

so we don't want to be getting
erroneous measurements

of the top of the pyramid.

We want to make sure
it's very accurate.

-And at the same time,
you're not going to be here

for months doing this work.

-There's a lot of pressure
on the team to make sure

it all comes together
as a really tight model

so that we can check
how accurate they were being

when they built the pyramids.

-So it's you guys against
the Ancient Egyptians?

-Ah, yeah.
[ Laughs ]

See who wins.
-Good luck, man.

All right.
I'll see you.

-Thank you.
-All right.

Ciao.

It's certainly a challenge.

At 450 feet tall and made out of
2.3 million stone blocks,

the Great Pyramid is still the
heaviest building in the world.

I'm going in
at the robbers' entrance,

where thieves dug a tunnel
into the pyramid

to steal any treasure inside.

This is going to be good.
This is amazing.

Been here once before,

but I've never had
the opportunity to explore it.

Let's go.

♪♪

♪♪

Much of the Great Pyramid
is closed off to the public.

But we've been granted
special permission

to enter a mysterious chamber
deep below ground level.

It's not easy getting down here,

but what I'm really thinking
about is, who carved this?

What conditions were they in
to go through the bedrock

with nothing more than a pickax
and a torch or a lamp?

And let's see where this leads.

♪♪

Ah.

I've gone down a shaft
a couple hundred feet,

and then I had to go
through a crawlspace

about 30 feet long
where I could barely fit

into this...

I think it's a chamber.

You can still see
the tool marks.

I'm well beneath the pyramid.

I don't know if it's unfinished,

but there's definitely something
going on right over here,

and it's a big mystery,

what really was taking place
in this chamber.

Some Egyptologists believe
this subterranean chamber

was built to be the burial tomb
but then abandoned.

There's something
over here, too.

Looks like it's a dead end.

Going to have to turn around.

I'm hoping our scans will help
make sense of this place.

It's incredibly hard to grasp
the layout of the pyramid.

But first, I'm heading up
into the heart of the pyramid

to meet Egyptian archaeologist
Zahi Hawass

in the ceremonial passageway
known as the Grand Gallery.

Hey there.
-Hi.

-Zahi, how are you doing?
-How are you?

-Nice to see you.
-Nice to see you.

-Bit of a hike here.
This is an amazing space.

-You have to imagine how
the Egyptian will construct

an amazing, grand gallery
like this,

because this is the entrance
of the palace of the king.

-The gallery is 28 feet high
and 153 feet long,

and leads up to the king's tomb.

-Now I take you
to the burial chamber.

-All right.

Not an easy space
to get through.

The burial chamber is high up
in the pyramid.

Oh, here we are.
Wow.

And in this room,
Pharaoh Khufu was laid to rest.

-Magic.
What do you feel?

-This is --
It's almost electric,

just being in all this history.

-Electric means more
than magic, yes?

-[ Laughs ]

-Everything here
built of granite.

-This tomb is now almost empty,

any treasures stolen
by grave robbers

just a few centuries
after it was built.

Only the sarcophagus
that once held

the mummified body of Khufu
is left.

So, tell me about Khufu.

When he died,
what happened then?

-They take him to workshop
where they mummify the body.

After they mummify the body,

they bring him
through the entrance,

and they bury him here.

-But that whole process
of bringing the body here,

that must have been
one heck of a ceremony.

-It is.
It took 70 days.

-This tomb within the pyramid,

what did it mean
to the people of Egypt?

-It is the palace
for the afterlife,

and therefore,
the king became God,

and he lives in his palace
for immortality.

-The first scans
of the Great Pyramid are in,

and I'm hoping they'll
make sense of its layout

and reveal the precision
with which it was built.

-Hey.
-Hey, Will. How you doing?

-Darius, good to see you.
-Nice to see you.

What have we got here?

-Well, something
quite incredible, really.

So, we've stitched
all the scans together

from the inside and the outside,

so we've got this now-complete
millimeter-perfect,

detailed model
of the entire pyramid.

-Unbelievable, unbelievable.

-So, yeah,
let me show you around.

-Yeah, want to relive the glory.

♪♪

Ooh, fantastic.

Now, that's something
we didn't experience,

because we were going through
all these corridors

and crawlspaces and chambers,

but you had no idea where even
you were in the pyramid,

and this way, we see it.

-This is really interesting
over here.

So, here, you can see
the robbers' tunnel

and compare that
to the run next to it,

which is the original
descending passageway

down to that subterranean room.

You can see the contrast
between the two --

one by the robbers, kind of
like a big root of ginger

as they kind of quarry their way
into the pyramid.

-They're tomb robbers.

I don't advocate that sort
of stuff, of course,

but look at the guts that
it took to do what they did.

I mean, that's
kind of mind-boggling,

to think that they're going
to just hack away

and remove those blocks
to get to the goods.

But, man, it's ugly,
but it worked,

and that's how

we

got
into the pyramids.

The perfectly-aligned
descending passage

leads down to
the subterranean chamber.

There's a lot of effort going
to construct that shaft.

I mean, that's no joke.

I mean, going through that's
intentional,

and it bottomed out
to this chamber.

-Mm-hmm.
-What was it used for?

-Complete mystery.
-Yeah.

-It has a very curious
shape and form.

♪♪

-Whatever the purpose
of the subterranean chamber,

we do know the more polished
king's chamber higher up

was the burial place
for the pharaoh.

-This beautiful,
incredibly clean,

incredibly powerful room --

what an amazing piece of
architecture inside the pyramid.

♪♪

-And, of course,
it was only for the pharaoh,

so this is something --
We're really privileged

to be able to see it now
in this virtual space.

I mean,
who was going to see that

in the time
of the Ancient Egyptians?

Basically nobody.
-Hmm.

-The scans allow us
to visualize new aspects

of this remarkable structure.

Will has inserted this red band
around the base of the pyramid

to measure how level it is.

Despite being
hundreds of feet apart,

the four corners
are at the same height,

within just four inches
of one another.

It's confirmed the pyramid
is almost exactly level.

It's not just something
done on the fly.

I mean, this is incredible.

Yeah, this is great engineering.

-You can see that the pharaoh

really did appreciate
the design.

The simplicity masks mountains
of engineering and ingenuity

that went into that
to build this,

so I think he was clearly a guy

who appreciated design and
architecture and engineering.

-Yeah.

It's fantastic to see
how the scans have confirmed

the precision with which
the pyramids have been built --

this in a time
when the rest of the world

was basically living
in mud huts.

Even today, in the 21st century,

you don't have architecture
that's always this precise,

and this is a great testament to
the greatness of the architects,

the engineers, the builders,
the stonecutters,

the masons of Ancient Egypt.

This is their legacy.

To learn more about
this advanced ancient culture,

we're now going to use
our scanning technology

to investigate the most famous
sculpture in the world.

♪♪

The scale of the Sphinx
is colossal.

It's a monumental figure,
over 200 feet long,

over 60 feet high.

And what is it?

Well, it's got the body
of a reclining lion

and the head of a man.

But whose face is it?

The Sphinx sits at the foot
of a ceremonial road

leading up to the second
middle pyramid of Giza,

close to the Great Pyramid.

This was built for
another pharaoh, Khafre,

and he was the son of Khufu,
buried next door.

The Sphinx was traditionally
believed to represent Khafre,

a spectacular gesture
of self-promotion,

but in 2003, some researchers
came to the conclusion

that Khafre had instead built it
to honor his father, Khufu.

♪♪

Using our laser technology,

we'll scan
the face of the Sphinx

and compare it with the scans of
sculptures of Khafre and Khufu.

In this way, we might answer
the age-old mystery

of who the Sphinx really is.

[ Horns honking ]

The Great Pyramid at Giza
wasn't the first to be built.

Researchers now know more
about the fascinating origins

of pyramid construction,

and the breakthrough was made
in an important location

12 miles away,
south of the city.

We're driving across
the vast urban landscape

of sprawling Cairo,

but we're actually making
an ancient journey

from the cemeteries of Giza
to the ancient capital, Memphis.

♪♪

The pharaohs
of Egypt's Old Kingdom

ruled from the city of Memphis.

Its population of 30,000 people
might not sound like a lot,

but at the time,

Memphis was one of
the largest cities in the world.

This was once
a cosmopolitan city

filled with temples,
palaces, and settlements,

but it's really hard to get
a sense of that city today.

We can turn instead to this
colossal statue of Ramses II

that was found in the city.

It once stood over 30 feet high,

one of a pair that stood
in front of a temple,

and it gives us a sense of how
magnificent this city once was.

♪♪

Made mostly of mud bricks,

Memphis has crumbled away
to dust,

but just two miles away,

the Ancient Egyptians built
something that would endure --

the stepped pyramid of Saqqara.

It was completed in 2650 B.C.,

80 years before
the Great Pyramid of Giza --

the earliest large-scale
cut-stone construction

anywhere in the world.

To find out more about
this prototype pyramid,

I'm meeting Egyptologist
Yasmin El Shazly.

-It's historically
very important

because it marks the transition
from mud-brick architecture

to large-scale
stone architecture.

-Well, I'm looking at it
right now,,

and still today,
it's very massive.

-Before they built this one,

kings were buried
in mastaba tombs,

which are basically
flat platforms.

-So, kind of like
the first level of this?

-Yes.
-What's the thinking

to actually go in
that direction, to go up?

-Some say that it acted
like a stairway to heaven,

because the soul of the king

was believed to unite
with the northern stars.

And another theory is that it
was built to be a huge monument

to be seen from the capital,
Memphis.

-"I'm larger than life,
and in death, you know,

I'm literally above
everybody else."

-Exactly.

♪♪

-My God, this is really
walking back in time.

-Yes, it's amazing.

-It's like out of a movie set,
except for it's real.

-[ Laughing ] Yes.

-We've been granted
special access

to explore
the very first pyramid.

In this way, we'll find out
how it influenced the design

of all the later pyramids.

Oh, this place
is all shored up here.

This must be some project.

-Well, it's closed to
the public for restoration,

so you're very lucky.

But be very careful.

Stick to the right here
because there's a hole.

-Yeah, I'll do that, definitely.

Ah, wow.
It really opens up now.

-Yes, look at that.

-That is impressive.

So, in this point,
are we looking

at the center of the pyramid?

-Yes, and it's...

This shaft is 28 meters deep.

-Wow.
That's like 100 feet.

So, at the bottom of that
is where the king is buried?

-Yes.
-Wow!

Can we go down this way or...?

-No, no, no.

It's dangerous
to go down this way.

We will go the other way around.

-All right.
Lead the way.

-Yes.
Please follow me.

-As we explore ever deeper,

the interior becomes
a confusing maze of tunnels,

corridors, shafts, and chambers.

-Watch your head --
and your back.

-Okay, yeah.
Wow, it is tight down here.

This place is like a labyrinth.

-Yes, it is, definitely.

-These guys could've made it
a little bit bigger.

Yasmin is taking me
to a small antechamber

that tells us more about why
the first pyramid was built.

-Look at that.

-Ah, wow.

So, a little bit of
the decoration is still here.

-Yes. These are
blue faience tiles.

All these chambers
were covered in them.

Unfortunately,
most of them are gone.

-Mm-hmm.
-But you can imagine

what it was like
when it was first built.

-Yeah, I mean,
I can see row after row

of just how they were inset
and so forth.

-It's really just great
to have this much

to re-create everything
that was once here.

-Yes, it would've been
incredible.

-So, what is the purpose, then,
of this kind of decoration?

What -- How would it fit?

-It was actually designed
to look like the king's palace.

-Okay.

-Because,
to the Ancient Egyptians,

the tomb was actually
the house of eternity.

-Mm-hmm.

The first pyramid was built

to conceal a palace
for the afterlife,

and it was all for King Djoser,

a pharaoh who ruled over
the newly unified kingdoms

of Upper and Lower Egypt
nearly 4,700 years ago.

-We don't know a lot about him,

but what we do know
is that he was a powerful king

who led successful
military campaigns,

and he was definitely
a very powerful king,

because he was able to mobilize
large numbers of workmen

to build this pyramid.

This was a national project.

-Right, and you're going
to have something

which is going to make a big
statement to everyone forever

that, "Look what
we were able to build."

This is his eternal home, then.

-Yes.

♪♪

-Will and his team
are already at work.

Our 3-D model will help us

understand the design
of the Saqqara pyramid,

revealing clues about
how it went on

to inspire the Great Pyramid.

♪♪

While they scan,
I'm at the Egyptian Museum

in the center of Cairo

to find out more
about King Djoser.

♪♪

But first,
I can't resist a visit

to the most beautiful
archaeological object

of Ancient Egypt.

♪♪

♪♪

This is the death mask
of Tutankhamun.

It was found over
his mummified head.

And this is just part of
a vast treasure of the pharaoh.

The head alone here
weighs 22 pounds of gold

and precious stones --
obsidian, lapis lazuli, faience.

It is extraordinary,

and when you think
of Ancient Egypt,

you think of this image.

♪♪

Tutankhamun became pharaoh
at the age of 9.

He died about 10 years later.

But during his short reign,
he restored religious tradition

and brought order
to a country in turmoil.

♪♪

But all this was happening

many centuries after the
building of the first pyramid.

And now what I've really
come to see --

a unique object discovered
at the stepped pyramid.

The only sculpture we have
of that pyramid pioneer,

King Djoser.

He's not as bling
as Tutankhamun,

but he's 1,000 years older

and something very special.

This statue is the earliest
life-size statue

of a human being ever,

and you can just see how
magnificent it is and once was.

It has traces of paint --
the mustache, the beard.

His eyes were inlaid
with precious stones.

So, not only were the Egyptians
pioneers in architecture,

they were pioneers in art.

♪♪

The Cairo Museum
also contains a full wall

of those blue tiles we saw
in the step pyramid of Djoser.

If you look closely,
the design here on the wall

was meant to represent rush mats

that would've once
decorated the walls

of the palace of the pharaoh.

But in the afterlife,

it becomes something
so sumptuous

and a very rich material.

It underlines the fact

that they invested so much more
in the afterlife

than they did in life.

♪♪

In addition to all the
preparations for the afterlife,

King Djoser also
had to demonstrate

his right to reign
during his lifetime.

♪♪

If a pharaoh's reign
lasted 30 years,

he celebrated with a ritual
called Heb Sed,

and that meant running around
a large arena like this,

and afterwards, he had
to have a wrestling match.

Now, the thing is,
Djoser's dead,

and that's his pyramid.

This arena is next door

because it's saying,
what he did in life,

he's going to continue in death
for all eternity.

The construction
of the first-ever pyramid

was a feat
of ancient innovation,

and our scans reveal it was
a fascinating learning process.

♪♪

The six well-defined steps of
the structure stand out clearly,

but at the bottom layer,

you can just make out
a join between two sections.

Tease this apart, and you find
a much smaller structure

known as a mastaba tomb
hidden inside.

This was built first.

But at some point
during construction,

the flat mastaba was expanded
into the full six-story pyramid,

a pioneering process
of innovation.

♪♪

Our scan reveals
the whole of the interior

is deep below ground level,
including the huge central shaft

leading down
to the burial chamber.

It's all very different

from anything at the
more streamlined Great Pyramid.

Right next to the base
of the burial shaft

is the small antechamber
with the beautiful blue tiles.

♪♪

And out from the shaft
is a labyrinth of tunnels

going off in
all different directions.

♪♪

It's estimated that there are
over three miles of tunnels.

We were only able to scan
a few of them.

♪♪

The step pyramid of Saqqara

ushered in a new age
of monument building,

but today, we look at it
as more like a prototype

because, just 80 years later,

the Egyptian engineers
and architects

refined their skills

to build a much more
ambitious project,

and that was
the Great Pyramid in Giza.

Building the Great Pyramid was
a massive undertaking

lasting about 20 years.

Until recently, little was known
about the workers who built it.

It's long been assumed
the majority were slaves.

Then, in 1990,

these tombs were found
completely buried in the sand

just next to the pyramids.

Zahi Hawass suspected

they might belong to some
of the builders of the pyramids.

Nothing I like more
than seeing an excavation site

with the person who actually
did the excavating.

-Yes, I found this tomb.

It's for an artist.
His name is Petety.

-Mm-hmm.
-And, actually,

he was afraid that his tomb
will be completely robbed,

and he left a curse inscription.
-Very nice.

-And if you look
at this curse inscription,

he's saying
at the beginning here,

"I never did anything wrong
in my life."

Of course, he's a big liar.

And he said again,

"If anyone will touch my tomb,
he will be eaten by..."

-Ooh. Wow.
-"...crocodile,

the hippo, and the lion."

-Unbelievable.
What a horrible way to go.

-It's amazing.

He was afraid that
his tomb will be stolen,

and it's why
he left inscription.

On the other side, the beautiful
scene of his wife, and look --

She's almost equal to him,
and this is very rare.

In Ancient Egypt, always,

the woman is in a smaller scale
beside the husband,

but it seems to me
that this could be love,

or she was a powerful woman,
that she gave an order to him,

and the profile is really show
an excellent artwork.

-So, do you think that
this kind of portrait, too,

was something that was idealized
or realistic features?

-This is idealistic.

This is what they want
to be shown in the afterlife.

Then an ugly lady could show
her beauty for the afterlife.

And this to show that not only
kings and queens can do that,

but also poor people
can go to paradise.

-And be buried together
for all eternity.

-Exactly.

-Thanks to the excavations
like Zahi's,

we now know that the people
who built the pyramids

were not slaves but free men.

And carvings
on the walls of the tombs

show how the 20,000-strong
workforce was kept going.

Bakers who made the bread.

Brewers of
the all-important beer.

Sculptures from their tombs

show us more clearly
what they looked like.

This is Inty-shedu,
carpenter who made the boats

that carried the stone blocks
for constructing the pyramids.

♪♪

Much of what we think about
in Ancient Egypt

is pyramids and the pharaohs
and their lives,

but here in this cemetery,
we have insight into the lives

of the average Egyptian --
the mason, the artist,

the people that were basically
the fabric of society --

and it gave me
a much more intimate view

of what it was like
to live in Ancient Egypt.

Earlier, we scanned the Sphinx
to try to solve the mystery

of which pharaoh
it really represents.

The two candidates were Khafre
or his father, Khufu.

♪♪

Now we're returning
to the Cairo Museum

to scan the faces
of their sculptures.

This is Pharaoh Khafre,
the son of Khufu,

and here he is out of this
incredibly beautiful stone

called diorite.

And what you have is
a very symmetrical pose,

except for this one
clenched fist.

Behind him is actually
the falcon, Horus,

protecting his head.

He is seated here regally
for all of eternity.

This is Khufu, his father,

and this statue of him
is only three inches tall.

Now, we know it's
a representation of Khufu

because his name
is on the front.

It's striking that
this tiny statue

is the only representation
we have of the pharaoh

who built the greatest
and largest pyramid of all.

♪♪

By scanning the faces
of the pharaohs,

we'll be able to compare them
with that of the Sphinx.

For the scans, the team need
two technologies.

-So, we've got the laser scan,

which is maybe five mil
of accuracy,

and the photogrammetry,

which will take us
much closer to one,

really pull out the detail
here in the face

so we can kind of
really zoom in.

-And what do you think
between Khufu and Khafre?

I mean, this is going to
hopefully resolve the riddle

of whose face is
on the Sphinx, right?

-Oh, I'd love to unlock that
riddle, yeah, yeah.

♪♪

-This is the scan of Khafre.

The face of the Sphinx
is superimposed on top,

scaled to the exact same size.

We ignore the nose,
missing from the Sphinx.

The blue and red areas
show points

where the faces
are most different,

the greens and yellows
a closer match.

And this is the scan
of Khufu, the father,

with the Sphinx's face overlaid

accurate to nearly .001 inch.

♪♪

By comparing the two, we can see

there's slightly more green
and yellow on Khafre's scan,

especially along
his cheeks and chin.

It's a closer match.

♪♪

It's not definitive,
but our results support

those who believe
the Sphinx is Khafre,

the son, rather than Khufu.

This suggests
Khafre built the Sphinx

not to honor his father...

♪♪

...but to boost his own ego
for eternity.

♪♪

When the Sphinx and pyramids
were being built here,

the course of the Nile
flowed much closer to Giza,

and harbors allowed boats
to unload stone blocks

from all across the country.

But over the two millennia

of the Ancient Egyptian
civilization,

the Nile constantly
changed its course.

♪♪

But many things
remain consistent.

All the capitals
were always located

along the life-giving Nile,

and many religious traditions
continued and were consistent

over 32 dynasties
and over 2,000 years,

although towards
the end of the era,

many times, they were
ruled by outsiders --

the Persians, the Ptolemies
of Greek Hellenistic culture,

and, finally, the Romans.

♪♪

The Romans invaded the region
in 31 B.C.,

a turning point in history

as it heralded
the end of Ancient Egypt.

♪♪

Egypt's fertile plains

quickly became the bread basket
for the empire.

It was said to feed
the city of Rome

for four months
out of every year.

Can I try one?
Thank you.

Oh, ah, it's hot!

It's really hot.

Mmm!
And it's really good.

This flatbread is a staple.

You see it everywhere in Cairo,

transported in vast quantities
throughout the city,

and it is delicious.

For millennia,
whoever controlled

the head of the Nile Delta
could also control trade

and the supply of wheat
from the lands along the Nile.

That's why
Memphis was sited here.

And now the Romans station
themselves close by

at a place called Babylon,

named after the original city
of Mesopotamia.

It was a defining moment

for the development
of the future city of Cairo.

This Cairo street follows
exactly along the old riverbed

of the Nile River
in Roman times.

Today, I'm on this street,

it is leading me
to a beautiful church.

♪♪

Archaeologist Peter Sheehan
has been studying this location

for nearly 30 years.

Hi, Peter.
-Hi, Darius. Morning.

-How's it going?
-It's going good.

Welcome to Old Cairo.
-This is amazing.

It just underlines, being
inside a Greek Orthodox church,

how multicultural
Cairo really is.

-It is, and particularly
Old Cairo, full of churches --

this Greek church,
a synagogue, the mosques.

This is the church
of Mari Girgis, Saint George.

You'll see him all around.

But we're not actually here
to look at so much

of the churches and mosques
and the other buildings today.

We came to look at the Romans.

-Now, this is exciting.

-So, take a look down there.
-Okay.

-Tell me what you see.
-Whew, that's a big drop.

-This church is built on top
of a Roman tower,

so what you're looking at
through here

is three stories of the Roman
tower, 16 meters high.

-That is fantastic.
Now, can we get down there?

-We can, of course.

♪♪

-Wow.

Is this right now
Roman level here?

-This is Roman ground level.

Here's the tower on your left...

-Wow, really impressive.

-...all the way up
to the height where we were,

effectively on the roof
of the tower,

which is where the church is.
-Okay.

It's so impressive that
the Romans,

wherever they went
in their empire,

they would build
in standard ways.

So, here we are,
way out in Egypt,

building the ways
that you'd see in Rome

or wherever in the empire.

-Yeah, and usually because
it's done by the legionaries.

-Peter is taking me
into the heart of the tower.

Wow. Now you've got this --
maybe a lower part.

Truncated columns here?
-Yeah, that's right.

These are the ground-floor
columns still in place,

and then, at a later point,
they've been cut off,

and a medieval wall has
been built on top of them.

-And then, up there,

I guess that's where we were
standing in the beginning.

-That's right, in the church,
right at the top of the tower.

♪♪

-After the fall of Rome,

Christians
in the 7th century A.D.

used the abandoned tower as
the foundations for a church --

the only circular church
in Egypt.

♪♪

Later, in 1909,
this new Orthodox church

was built on top of the old one.

While the scan teams
set to work,

Peter is keen
to show me evidence

that the Roman tower is part
of something much bigger,

and it's just up the street.

It's another
massive construction.

-Another massive round tower,
like we had in the first one.

-Right. So, here,
you would've had --

-Central open space this time,
lots of light.

-And you really get
a really good sense

of this colonnade here.

So, what to make of all this?

I mean, you've got two towers.

-You got it -- two towers.
This is the south tower.

The other one was
the north tower.

So, here we are.
-Oh, wow.

-You tell me where we are.
-So these two towers?

-That's right, and
this forms the western side

along the contemporary line
of the Nile.

-Okay, which is no longer here
out on the street there.

-500 meters
further to the west now.

-Okay.
-So, what we're looking at --

The two towers form the western
side of the fortress of Babylon.

-The Roman emperor Diocletian

oversaw the building
of the fortress in A.D. 300.

The new fortress was crucial
for trade along the Nile.

-We also have a good idea
of why he built it in this spot,

which was really to fortify
the existing entrance

to the Red Sea Canal,

connecting the Nile
to the Red Sea.

-There's a canal from the Nile
to the Red Sea?

-That's right.

Just like the Suez Canal
in the 19th century,

connecting the Mediterranean
ultimately with the Red Sea.

-This canal was
over 100 miles long,

a feat of engineering which
allowed Rome to dominate trade

to countries
as far away as India,

its entrance to the Nile

protected by
the Babylon fortress.

I want to see
if the scans can tease out

the extraordinary history

of these very different
buildings.

♪♪

At the top is
the Orthodox church,

with its ornately painted
interior.

♪♪

Deep in the foundations
is the Roman tower.

♪♪

When you take away
the church superstructure,

you see more clearly
that this circular tower

is the mirror of its sister.

♪♪

The two towers
are on either side

of the entrance to the harbor,

guarding the meeting place
of the River Nile

and the Red Sea Canal.

Our computer reconstruction
reveals the full extent

of the whole fortress --

400 yards by 200 yards,

large enough to hold
a garrison of 1,000 men.

This has been
a truly remarkable story.

From the outside,
you would never guess that

the Greek Orthodox church here
sits on top of a Roman tower.

You have to strip away
the layers to reveal,

and what you discover is that
this entire area was once

a massive Roman fortification

with a channel that connected
to the Red Sea and a harbor,

and outside,
there flowed the Nile,

ultimately connecting this part
of the Roman Empire

with the rest
of the Roman world.

♪♪

The Romans dominated Egypt
for 600 years.

But by the 7th century A.D.,

a new empire
was rising in the east.

♪♪

In A.D. 642,
the Arabs conquered Egypt,

bringing many new influences
from the Middle East and beyond.

♪♪

[ Call to prayer
in native language ]

The religion of Islam was
just 20 years old at the time,

yet it would define the
developing culture of the city.

These two minarets stand
at the boundary of the old city.

♪♪

The invading Arab army had
captured the Babylon fortress

and established
their own capital here

at this strategic point
on the Nile,

the nucleus of the city
that would become Cairo.

The actual origin
of the name Cairo is obscure,

and there are many versions.

One story is that the Arabs
wanted this new city

to conquer the entire world,
so they called it Al-Qahirah,

which means, in Arabic,
the "conqueror."

The Western world has taken
"Qahirah" and made it "Cairo."

♪♪

One of the greatest leaders
of Arab Egypt

was Saladin
in the 12th century A.D.

Saladin defended the Holy Land
from the Crusader armies.

When he secured power
in Egypt in 1171,

he built a stronghold on a rocky
outcrop overlooking Cairo.

Saladin's Citadel was to become
the center of power

for the next seven centuries.

To find out more,
I'm meeting Jehan Reda,

an expert
in Arabic architecture.

Can you tell me a little bit

about why Saladin built
his citadel here?

-Well, maybe to defend
the city of Cairo,

but also for himself

as a stronghold for himself
and his family,

and because
it's the higher ground.

-So he's got
a good lookout around

at what enemies
he'd need to repel?

-That's right.
-Who would those enemies be?

-Well, he was at war
with the Crusaders.

They were at continuous warfare,
and he needed to make sure

that the cities were defended
and that they were fortified.

The entrance is right here.

-Okay. And we're at
a pretty elevated point.

Jehan is going to show me
one of Cairo's secret places,

the Well of the Spiral,

a medieval masterpiece
deep below the citadel.

So, it looks like people
don't come here too often.

-Well, no. Actually,
it's a little bit dangerous.

-Oh.

This well
would provide the water

to allow the citadel
to withstand long sieges.

♪♪

So, this is carved
right into the bedrock?

-Right into the rock.

And, actually, we're going down
the staircase here,

which wraps itself around
the shaft of the well.

-Ah, wow.

-So, these are the windows.
-Oh, man!

Okay, that's a drop.

That's a drop.
That is deep.

Okay.
-Yeah.

There's so much rock
that was cut through.

I just sort of think
about engineering

but also, you know,
the labor force.

Do we have any idea?

Is this done
by the military or...?

-Well, no. Actually,
we have an eyewitness account

that places Crusader
prisoners of war at the site.

-Prisoners of war
throughout history

get the short end of the stick

and are made to do a lot of
hard, backbreaking labor.

-Hard work.
-All right.

-Let's go.

♪♪

-Oh, looks like
we're bottoming out here.

-Yes, we are almost there.

So, here we are.

-Wow.
-Uh-huh.

-Oh, yeah, it's one thing
to look down,

and it is another thing
to look up.

[ Both chuckle ]

-Yeah.

-This is even more impressive
from down here.

-The 45 meters above you,

you can see it
all the way up to the sky.

-So, that's like
100, 125 feet or so,

and then there's more.

-You're standing above it,
actually.

So, the shaft, the continuation
of this one,

is right beneath us.
-My God.

So, they're more than
a halfway point here,

but how is the water
getting to this level

and all the way up to the top?
-All the way up.

So, we have a mechanical system

made up of two water wheels
who fit into each other.

-Okay.
-We have a set

down here on this platform...

-Right now?
-...and a set up there.

-Still today?
-Yeah, right behind you.

-Can we take a look at it?
-Right behind you.

-Oh, in the dark?
-Well...

-You did say to bring
a flashlight so...

-Flashlights on.

-Ah, now.
-Hmm.

-So, how exactly is this
going to be working?

-Well, they're powered
by oxen, actually.

They walk around in a circle,

turning the first
horizontal wheel...

-Okay.
-...which, in turn,

turns the vertical one.

-The wheel lifted up the water
in a series of buckets

attached to a rope,
all driven by the oxen.

-...all the way
down the shaft.

-A miserable existence,
and I'm thinking, again,

can you imagine
managing to get the oxen

all the way down here
to this depth?

-Yes, well, they used
the spiral staircase

to get them down here.
-Right, right.

-But, I mean, like, it's got to
be a 24/7 kind of procedure

if you want to.
-Hard work, yes.

-Really hard work,
and I'm feeling really sorry

for the oxen right now.

And then it continues up.

-And then it continues up
using another system like this

at the very top.
-That is unbelievable.

♪♪

Jehan told me that the well goes
even deeper into a second shaft.

-So, that hole there is open,
and if you fell down it,

you'd go right away
down the hole.

-Okay.

-With the help
of a climbing expert,

we can scan the lower half
of the well

to discover more about
its remarkable engineering.

The scan team finally reached
the level of the Nile.

This water was a precious
resource back in Saladin's day.

It would've been cleaner
back then.

Visiting Saladin's well was
an extraordinary adventure,

and understanding it --

many times, it's dark,
the lighting is not very good.

It's a massive construction.

It's hard to get
your head around

just really what
you're walking through,

and I think that the scans
are going to be able to give us

a better sense
of the construction of the well.

♪♪

The citadel sits high
on its outcrop.

♪♪

As you come down,
you see just how far

the well shaft has to descend
to reach the water table --

a remarkable 295 feet
through solid rock.

♪♪

And the scans reveal how the two
shafts of the well fit together,

with a middle platform
for the water-wheel mechanism

and those ever-circling oxen.

♪♪

From there, the water was lifted
up through the top section

to come out into a reservoir
like this in the courtyard.

♪♪

The well and its supply of water

helped make the citadel
impenetrable.

♪♪

[ Horns honking ]

From Saladin's time
until the 19th century,

Cairo's leaders ruled
from the mighty citadel.

During the later centuries,

Egypt was occupied
by foreign invaders --

the Ottomans, the French,
and the British.

Finally, in 1953,

Egypt broke away
from British control

and became fully independent
once more.

Cairo is now the capital
of a new republic.

[ Horns honking ]

But of all the cultures

that have ruled
the region around Cairo,

the one that continues
to feed the imagination

and inspire the modern people
of this country

is the civilization
of Ancient Egypt.

♪♪

And that's largely due
to the architectural jewel

in Cairo's crown,

the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Now I'm going to re-enter
this world in a new way

using virtual reality.

Ooh.

-So, welcome to
our virtual studio.

-Very impressive.

What do you got in store
for me today?

-Well, let me teleport you
to the Great Pyramid --

so, a perspective that
you've never seen before.

-All right.
Let's see.

♪♪

Oh, okay, I've never seen
the pyramids like this before.

-[ Chuckles ]

♪♪

-We've got everywhere
that we visited.

I see all the chambers here,
just floating.

-We have a privileged,
almost pharaoh-like view here

of the inside of the pyramid.

-Oh, we just pass
right through the walls,

which is great because
I can get a breath of fresh air.

That is really cool.

And down below, in there,

we've got
our subterranean chamber.

-This subterranean chamber here
is really amazing,

especially when you look up

to align it
with all the other rooms.

-It's amazing.

I'm below the subterranean
chamber right now.

That is intense.

-See how
all three of them align.

-Oh, yeah.

I never thought I'd be inside
the pyramids on my back,

looking up through the pyramids,
through the chambers.

How did they do this?

The subterranean chamber is much
rougher than the upper tombs,

but its alignment suggests
it was part of an original plan.

-Darius, do you remember
this space?

-This is the Grand Gallery.

I mean,
what an impressive space,

except, instead
of walking up it,

we're kind of floating
in the middle of it.

It's really cool.

At the top, I can just see
in the distance there.

I can see floating out there
the pharaoh's actual tomb.

-So, to be true
virtual archaeologists,

we really should enter the space
as we did for real, crawling.

-And, actually, it really feels
like we're back there.

And you don't want
to bump your head.

Oh, yes, that is good.

I feel like I just relived
that moment again.

That's fantastic.
[ Grunts ]

-Although it seems very simple,
the engineering required

to make this space
inside a huge structure

is sort of incredible,
really, to think about.

♪♪

So, we shrunk down the pyramid
so that we could take this,

like, beautiful overview
of the whole Giza Plateau.

I love how Cairo, you know,

laps up against
the plateau of Giza

as the river did many years ago.
-Amazing.

I'm sure the pharaoh would've
appreciated this view, too.

♪♪

This has been one of
the most amazing experiences

I've ever had.

♪♪

Being in Cairo,
I got a new appreciation

for the depth
and breadth of history.

Just think about the Romans.

We consider them ancient,
but when they came to Egypt,

they encountered a civilization
that had already been developed

and was thriving for thousands
and thousands of years

before them.

And it's all in the shadow
of the Pyramids of Giza

that are still awe-inspiring
and timeless.

-Next time -- Istanbul,
where East meets West.

A lost chariot racing track,

challenges underground...

Whoa, this place is huge!

...and a Roman
engineering masterpiece.

♪♪

-"Ancient Invisible Cities"
is

available on DVD.

To order, visit Shop PBS

or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

This program is also available
on

Amazon Prime Video.

♪♪

♪♪